MMS&B to announce streetscape winner 'soon'

• Molly Goldsmith

Molly Goldsmith is the program director for Mitchell Main Street and Beyond.

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Mitchell Main Street & Beyond has narrowed the list of proposals for a downtown streetscape project.

Five proposals were submitted, according to MMS&B Executive Director Molly Goldsmith, and two teams have made the cut.

The winning team will be announced “soon,” Goldsmith said, most likely in July.

“I’m not exactly sure,” she said. “We’re working on the committee’s time and with these two teams.”

She said the proposals came from teams, not just from individual firms. In most cases, an architect, landscape architect, engineers and planning groups worked together to submit a plan.

“There’s a lot of interest, but that interest is from a lot of people, a lot of firms,” Goldsmith said.

A group of MMS&B members are reviewing the proposals, Goldsmith said. They will be joined later by city staffers and others to help in the selection process

So far, the committee has not seen any designs, just “very preliminary” proposals for a streetscape project in downtown, she said. Public meetings will be held to gather input on the streetscape project.

MMS&B will spend $20,000 to determine a design for the project. The work itself will cost far more, she said.

“The cost, we don’t know what the cost is going to be,” Goldsmith said. “We’re not sure how paying for the project will go. It will have to be a combination of sources.”

The earliest work could start on the project is 2014, she said.

Mitchell Main Street & Beyond is also relocating its office.

It will remain in the Midtown Plaza Mall at 400 N. Main St. but is moving from its basement office to a ground floor location in Suite 202 as of Monday. Goldsmith was painting the office herself Wednesday and said the new spot will only boost the business advocacy group.

“We will be more visible,” she said.

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